This stupendous victory was won by an unrelenting grassroots citizen
campaign powered by amazing press coverage that systematically
highlighted the public health and environmental concerns of shale
fracking. That effort has won a victory unparalleled in the annals of
the American environmental movement.

Tom Wilber who writes Shale Gas Review which
covers gas development in Marcellus and Utica shales, noted the power
of the anti-fracking movement and how it related to the science on
fracking:

Science is part of the calculus. But despite what Cuomo would like us
to believe, scientists don’t make these kinds of decisions. The full
equation is Science + politics = policy. Cuomo finally got tired of
being hounded on the issue by his political base. The movement in New
York against shale gas was relentless and it was focused on him.

People rising up and saying ‘no’ to fracking made it impossible for
the government to ignore the health, safety and environmental problems
caused by fracking. See this December 2014 compendium of the research.
This victory is one that will spur the anti-fracking movement
throughout the country and puts in question the fracking infrastructure
being built, e.g. pipelines, compressor stations and export terminals,
currently being pushed throughout the country by Big Energy.

Inside Climate News reports that
Sandra Steingraber, an environmental health expert and fracking
activist in New York, told them from the parking lot of a sheriff’s
office where she was bailing out 28 musicians arrested in an ongoing protest against a fracked gas storage facility in
the Seneca Lakes region of New York that when she told the activists
the news, they picked up their instruments and there was “singing and
dancing in the streets.” She added “Fracking is able to roll over so
many communities because people are told it is inevitable. This decision
emboldens us all. It shows this fight is winnable.”

At a meeting in Calvert County last night where Dominion Resources is
building a fracked gas export terminal, Tracey Eno of Calvert Citizens
for a Healthy Community, a member ofWe Are Cove Point, mentioned the Cuomo decision to inspire people to realize that we can defeat big energy.

Yesterday morning we received an email message urging people in New
York to prepare to protest as Governor Cuomo was expected to announce
three pilot fracking projects in New York, instead the governor decided
to continue the moratorium on fracking. This reminds us that we often do
not realize how close we are to victory, indeed people often feel like
they are failing or cannot win, when in fact victory is within reach and
much closer than they realize.

Cuomo spoke briefly at a press conference after his cabinet meeting
announcing the fracking ban and saying he was following the advice of
experts. He then turned the press conference over to them to explain the
decision.

The New York Times reports that the state health commissioner expressed concerns about the health impacts of fracking:

In a presentation at the cabinet meeting, the acting state health
commissioner, Dr. Howard A. Zucker, said the examination had found
“significant public health risks” associated with fracking.

Holding up copies of
scientific studies to animate his arguments, Dr. Zucker listed concerns
about water contamination and air pollution, and said there was
insufficient scientific evidence to affirm the safety of fracking.

Dr.
Zucker said his review boiled down to a simple question: Would he want
his family to live in a community where fracking was taking place?

Zucker said that in other states where fracking is already happening, he found that state health commissioners “weren’t even at the table.”

At the same time, Joe Martens, the environmental commissioner described the economic stimulus from fracking was not as great telling
a press conference that the prospects for fracking in New York are
“uncertain at best” and describing economic benefits as “far lower than
originally forecasted.” As The Times reported:

Martens noted the low
price of natural gas, the high local cost of industry oversight and the
large areas that would be off-limits to shale gas development because of
setback requirements, water supply protections, and local prohibitions.
He said those factors combine to make fracking less economically
beneficial than had been anticipated.

Chip Northrup, a former oil and gas investor who writes the No Fracking Way blog that opposes drilling in New York, wrote about the views of commissioners Zucker and Martens:

We urge advocates and
the governor to now put in place a strategy to make New York the first
state to put in place a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy by
2025. This is not an impossible fantasy but an achievable goal. Here is one example of
how New York could achieve a clean energy economy. Putting in place a
clean energy policy is the kind of leadership that could revive Cuomo,
who had a very difficult re-election, as a viable presidential candidate
in 2020.

Kevin Zeese is co-director of Popular Resistance which is a member of We Are Cove Point which seeks to stop the development of a fracked gas expert terminal at Cove Point in Maryland.

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